Our den by Ashley, Meabh and Phoebe in Year 1

We had fun making our den in the woodlands on Thursday. 

We had fun in the den and we enjoyed it. We had to get some sticks and made a den.

 We got some more littler sticks to make a pretend fire and pretended to be poor and have some food but not that much.

When we went in the den we had so much fun and we played in the den and we played mum and daddy.We tried to make a fire. 

When we started to make the den Meabh found a big stick and we tried to fit it into the den but it was too big.

In the den we had lots and lots of fun. 

When we made our den we were proud.

By Ashley, Meabh and Phoebe.

Year 1

Year 5’s Alien Planet – Who says older children don’t do role play?

Guest Post by Mrs Walker

Before Easter and the earlier part of last half term Year 5 had a class visitor, Mr Alien.  He wanted them to explore many things such as looking at different settlements so they could help him to settle in a new part of his alien planet.  To round off Mr Alien’s visit we had two fantastic visits into the school woodlands. 

The first afternoon the children were settlers on the alien planet and used what they could find in the woodlands to think and act like settlers.  Some children focused on making shelters and homes to live in and looked at the physical features of the woodlands to decide where best to set up camp.  Other children looked at how to make a living on the new planet and decided that by setting up a hunting shop to sell hunting tools they could make a living but also help others to catch their own food.

The children who made shops and café’s also made their own currency and started to trade goods between themselves.  This was something that we hadn't covered in the classroom but gave the children the experience of what it was like to be a settler in a new area.  Some of the children took it a step further and created a cinema for the settler and even put on a show for us all in 4D! They used a leaf ticketing system to control the entrance to the cinema and made a candy floss machine using a hollowed out log.

The afternoon went by far too quickly so we decided to do a full day in the woodlands the following week incorporating structured activities as well as free play time to see where the children took their learning.  I also like to involve children in the planning process so wanted to include some of their ideas into the woodlands day. 

Earlier on in the term some had shown an interest at looking at what aliens might eat.  This was the focus for one of our activities during the woodlands day.  I asked the children to create recipes for an alien café using only materials that they found in the woodlands.  When creating the recipes the children were noting down the quantities of ingredients used and it was nice to hear them using mathematical vocabulary.  It also reinforced their understanding of ratios that they had learned a few weeks earlier and were using terms such as “one handful of mud for every two handfuls of sticks”.

In addition to the alien café the children also went on a bug hunt with Mrs Bell in the woodlands where they found some marvellous creatures and were able to look at them up close.  Miss Harrison arranged a fantastic orienteering activity with lots of clues hidden around the school ground for the children to work out.  We never realised that Popcorn the class hamster was Mr Alien’s helper!! 

At lunch time we had a lovely treat of salmon and new potatoes.  I’d never cooked in the woodlands before but had fantastic support from Mrs Carter and Mrs Bell who rustled up a scrumptious lunch and there was plenty left over for those who hadn't tried salmon before to have a taste.

After lunch the children had a free play session but I was amazed at how the majority of them carried on with their settlement ideas.  The girls decided to create a jewellery shop and created some original pieces from things found in the woodlands and the boys carried on with their hunting supply shop.  The main thing that struck me from their free play was how they also carried on developing their currencies something which could possibly be taken further in the classroom.

I’d never organised a full day in the woodlands before but followed some fantastic advice from Miss Kenyon that ‘less is more’ and it certainly was in this case.  Just by planting a few seeds into their imaginations it was great to see how they engaged in role play and developed their classroom learning into contexts that made sense to them.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with the children (and staff) in Year 5 and I miss their creative imaginations already !!